This invention relates generally to television systems and, more particularly, to parental controls for television systems.
There are many devices in use in television systems today for controlling access to content (e.g., video or audio content) as a function of the nature of the content (e.g., the amount of sex or violence portrayed within the content). Within such “parental control” systems (e.g., the well-known V-Chip system), program content rating information is sent along with a television signal (e.g., in the vertical blanking interval (VBI)) or stored in a program description database, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,537, included herein by reference in its entirety.
The program content rating information can include ratings for broadcast programming (e.g., Motion Picture Association of America ratings such as G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17) as well as numerical ratings of individual categories of program nature, such as violence, language, nudity, and sexual content. Generally, parental control systems allow a consumer to exclude or block programs meeting or exceeding certain ratings criteria.
Parental control systems present several challenges to the television viewer. First, users (e.g., parents) who use these systems must enter a password every time they wish to block/unblock a program or invoke a related parental control command. This requires a user with the appropriate administrative password to be available and ready to configure the system if needed. In addition, users must specifically identify all the programming content they wish the parental control system to block. Given the number of channels on present-day delivery systems (e.g., cable and satellite systems), and the amount of content available from video-on-demand services, this can be an arduous task. Typically, users are required to specify which content to block by rating level or other attributes contained within the program content rating information. This process typically requires an extensive amount of setup and configuration time in order to block every category of undesirable programming content.
Yet another problem with existing parental control systems is that the user must agree with subjective ratings associated with each program. Such ratings are often assigned by third parties and are potentially not applied consistently across all content and categories. For example, a cinematic film designated as “PG” by the Motion Picture Association of America may still contain offensive or otherwise undesirable content for young children. As another example, one film rated PG by a given rating authority may be acceptable to a particular parent, while another film rated PG may not be acceptable. Parents may wish to further restrict or limit such content regardless of the supplied ratings.
In addition, existing parental control systems usually require the participation and compliance of the broadcaster or content provider. For example, program content rating information typically must be sent along with the television signal in order for existing parental control systems to function properly. This usually requires a broadcaster or multiple service operator (MSO) to augment the program signal. However, many types of media, such as Internet websites, interactive games, prerecorded movies, and/or video-on-demand (VOD) programs, may not contain program rating information. Thus, parental control systems relying exclusively on this information may not be able to effectively screen these programs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a parental control system which improves the control parents have on the content that their children are watching, or, more generally, a content control system associated with a multimedia entertainment system (e.g., audio, video, or gaming system) that has increased flexibility in what content is accessible via the multimedia entertainment system.